AUSTRALIAN NEWSPAPER HISTORY GROUP NEWSLETTER ISSN 1443-4962 No. 36 February 2006 Compiled for the ANHG by Rod Kirkpatrick, 13 Sumac Street, Middle Park, Qld, 4074. Ph. 07-3279 2279. E-mail: [email protected] 36.1 COPY DEADLINE AND WEBSITE ADDRESS Deadline for next Newsletter: 30 April 2006. Subscription details appear at end of Newsletter. [Number 1 appeared October 1999.] The Newsletter is online through the “Publications” link of the University of Queensland’s School of Journalism & Communication Website at www.uq.edu.au/journ-comm/ and through the ePrint Archives at the University of Queensland at http://eprint.uq.edu.au/) CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS: METROPOLITAN 36.2 DEATH OF KERRY PACKER Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer died in his sleep on 26 December 2005, aged 68. Packer, who was Australia‟s wealthiest citizen, was a sometime newspaper owner (mainly regional newspapers, but also the Canberra Times, 1987-89), and the principal shareholder in Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd (PBL), which runs, amongst other enterprises, the biggest stable of magazines in Australia and the Nine television network. He was the third-generation member of the Packer media dynasty. His father, Sir Frank Packer, owned the Daily Telegraph from 1936-72 and started Channel 9 in both Sydney and Melbourne; and Kerry‟s grandfather, Robert Clyde Packer, was a newspaper manager and owner whose fortunes received a wonderful boost when he was given a one-third interest in Smith’s Weekly. On 28 December and on succeeding days, Australian newspapers gave extensive coverage to the death of Kerry Packer and its implications for the future of PBL, but especially the Nine Network. The death and related issues occupied the first five pages of the Australian on 28 December; and Pages 1 and 4-8 in the Sydney Morning Herald, which had long feared falling into the hands of Packer (the front page banner headline was “Death of a giant”). The Herald ran a full double-column broadsheet editorial on Packer (p.16) and devoted its Opinion Page (p.17) to comment pieces by Philip Derriman, Rod Tiffen, Malcolm Turnbull and Robert Pullan. The Australian also ran an editorial on Packer on 28 December and 10 letters from readers (p.11), and devoted two-thirds of its Opinion Page (p.10) to Packer. The Packer-owned Bulletin magazine published a 100-page “special tribute issue” devoted entirely to Kerry Packer on 4 January 2006. It took 48 hours to produce the edition and it became a best-seller, with newsagents ringing up to double and treble their orders. Editor Garry Linnell said the original print run was three times as many as for an ordinary issue of the magazine. Linnell had special praise for the article he commissioned from Les Carlyon. “Twelve hours later he filed 4,000 untouchable words, not one spelling error, beautiful copy; that‟s what he‟s like.” A reprint of the special issue was on sale at the state memorial service on 17 February and until sold out (Mediaweek, 23-30 January 2006, pp.1, 10). Page 1 The Australian published a report (6 January 2006, pp.1-2) on an interview with Francis Packer, son of Clyde Packer and the only nephew of Kerry Packer. It is clear that Kerry and Clyde remained close after Clyde‟s split with their father. The monthly magazine, the Australian Women’s Weekly, published a tribute to Kerry Packer in its February 2006 edition (pp.18-39), including a 2½-page tribute from the editorial director, Deborah Thomas and an 18-page “A Fond Farewell” section, which is predominantly pictorial . The Monthly (February 2006, pp.20-24) ran a five-page article, “Some Velvet Mourning”, by the academic who has studied the Packers most intensively, Bridget Griffen-Foley. More than 2,000 people attended a 75-minute state memorial service for Kerry Packer in the concert hall at thr Sydney Opera House on 17 February. It was telecast live by the Nine Network. The service was attended by five men who had captained Australia in cricket, two who had been Prime Minister, and five who had been premiers. There were also three Hollywood stars and at least three billionaires (Weekend Australian, 18-19 February 2006, pp.1, 4-5). The Sydney Morning Herald ran a four-page wraparound of the memorial service (18-19 February). Phillip Adams wrote in the Weekend Australian Magazine (18-19 February 2006, pp.14-17) of a complex and troubled Kerry Packer, a wistful, vulnerable man who admitted he had inside him “a big black hole”. “I‟m doing my best … so don‟t compare me with Dad,” was the message James Packer conveyed during an interview on Channel 9‟s Sunday program on 19 February (Australian, 20 February 2006, p.3). Chris Anderson has been appointed deputy chairman of the board of PBL in place of the late Kerry Packer. Anderson is a former chief executive of telco Optus and a former editor-in- chief of the Sydney Morning Herald (Australian, 26 January 2006, p.19). For background reading: Barry, Paul (1993), The rise and rise of Kerry Packer, Bantam and ABC Books. Griffen-Foley, Bridget (1999), The House of Packer: The making of a media empire, Sydney: Allen & Unwin. 36.3 COURIER-MAIL TO CHANGE TO HALF THE PRESENT BROADSHEET SIZE “We are changing our size, not our news values,” declared Courier-Mail editor David Fagan when announcing that the paper would convert to tabloid format some time in the first half of 2006. Well, he didn‟t quite say that; he didn‟t use the T-word, apparently for fear that some readers would associate “tabloid” with a change in values. The word Fagan used, throughout his announcement of the format change, was “compact”, which he then felt the need to explain to readers was “half the present broadsheet size”. (See David Fagan, “Paper to take on new look in 2006”, Courier-Mail, 15 December 2005, pp.1-2; John Lehmann, “Courier-Mail turns tabloid”, Australian, 15 December 2005, p.13.) When the Courier-Mail has become a tabloid, the only remaining broadsheet metropolitan daily newspapers will be the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age (Melbourne), the Canberra Times and the Australian. The Sunday Age is the only remaining broadsheet Sunday paper and the Sunraysia Daily, Mildura, is the only broadsheet regional daily. At the Courier-Mail, David Fagan says the format change is in response to reader surveys. But some newspaper observers might suggest the declining Monday-to-Friday circulations have had some Australian Newspaper History Group Newsletter No 36 February 2006 Page 2 influence on the decision. The Courier-Mail has lost 10 per cent of the Monday-to-Friday circulation that it had in 1990, dropping from 233,666 to 211,279 (in the first half of 2005). The date for the Courier-Mail’s conversion to tabloid has been set: Monday, 13 March. The Saturday paper has been the biggest challenge, says Fagan. “We have nutted out a few ways to present it so there aren‟t so many sections and to make it easier to get around than perhaps it is now.” (Mediaweek, 13 February 2006, p.5) The Courier-Mail will raise advertising rates by 9 per cent on 13 March when it changes to a tabloid format. The increase, four months earlier than expected, will offset a 7 to 8 per cent loss of revue because of lower charges for smaller tabloid ads (Australian, 16 February 2006, p.17). [See ANHG 36.43 for background to changes of format in Australian newspapers.] 36.4 PAMELA BONE SAYS ADIEU Pamela Bone‟s farewell column in the Age prompted many readers to write to wish her well and to thank her for sharing her opinions over the years. Bone wrote the column after a year of treatment for multiple myeloma (cancer of the bone marrow). An associate editor of the Age, Bone retired on 16 December after 23 years with the paper. In her farewell, published on 19 December (p.13), Bone shared what she had learned over the 12 months of her illness and said that legislation for assisted suicide – for the right to die at a time of one‟s own choosing – “will and should come”. Letters from seven readers, commenting on Bone‟s column, were published on 20 December under the heading, “A voice of humanity and compassion”. 36.5 AGE APPOINTMENTS Paul Ramadge, a former Newcastle Herald journalist and one-time editor of the Dubbo Daily Liberal, became the senior deputy editor of the Age on 1 January. Over nearly 10 years at the Age, Ramadge has edited most parts of the paper: the Saturday Age, the daily sections, and in 2000 the extensive coverage of the Sydney Olympic Games. He now has responsibility for the Age’s news, business and sports coverage. Simon Mann, the former senior deputy editor, has become the paper‟s chief correspondent. He leads the newspaper‟s reporting on issues around Australia and, when necessary, overseas (Age, 20 December 2005, p.2). 36.6 AAP MOVES TO RHODES Australian Associated Press (AAP) has shifted its headquarters from the heart of Sydney‟s CBD to suburban Rhodes, not far from the Sydney Olympics village of 2000. The CEO of AAP, Clive Marshall, was “Person of the Week” in Mediaweek on 13 February, pp.2, 7. The AAP shareholding is: News Ltd 45 per cent; John Fairfax Holdings 45 pc; West Australian Newspapers Holdings 8pc; Rural Press Ltd 2pc (RPL obtained its shareholding when it bought the Harris Group, publisher of the Burnie Advocate).